Veta: http://www.ouya.tv/ Read up on it. It's a very open Android home gaming console with a quad-core Tegra 3 processor in it. Comes with a controller for $99, and every game is required to have a free trial.

This has the potential to really alter the console gaming market; and I desperately hope it does.

Peaches: I've not heard that Steam is doing anything with Android or the Ouya. This is an ARM architecture, not x86; the existing Steam catalogue of games cannot simply be turned on or activated for any mobile device, be it Android or iOS. The Google Play Store will not be available on it natively, but this is a completely open device and you'll be able to root it easily and within seconds, to then install other Android apps onto it; like the Google Play Store. I'm not sure what all will be available on there for this device, though. Should be able to find out a lot more by the time you could buy one when they release fully to the public in June, though.

RolandDeschain wrote:Veta: http://www.ouya.tv/ Read up on it. It's a very open Android home gaming console with a quad-core Tegra 3 processor in it. Comes with a controller for $99, and every game is required to have a free trial.

This has the potential to really alter the console gaming market; and I desperately hope it does.

Peaches: I've not heard that Steam is doing anything with Android or the Ouya. This is an ARM architecture, not x86; the existing Steam catalogue of games cannot simply be turned on or activated for any mobile device, be it Android or iOS. The Google Play Store will not be available on it natively, but this is a completely open device and you'll be able to root it easily and within seconds, to then install other Android apps onto it; like the Google Play Store. I'm not sure what all will be available on there for this device, though. Should be able to find out a lot more by the time you could buy one when they release fully to the public in June, though.

There was a rumor last year that Steam were going to get in on this and partner up with the Ouya people. I guess that has since died. I know SquareEnix are releasing their games for it, and that alone is almost worth it to me.

A friend of mine from my undergrad days just moved to Seattle as her husband was hired to be something at Steam (which Id never heard of before) which he isnt allowed to talk about .. I wonder if this is it?

Will read up, thanks Roland.

“If somebody thinks they're a hedgehog, presumably you just give them a mirror and a few pictures of hedgehogs and tell them to sort it out for themselves.”

Peaches, more devs will sign on with this over time. XMBC, which is a supremely popular home theater PC software package for Linux/Windows, is in. The fact that this device is completely open (you can go edit anything, hack anything, mod anything) will ensure it's loved by the Linux community.

Help make it a success by ordering one. The more they sell, the more devs will come. Netflix hasn't been confirmed as of yet as far as I know, but they said they hope to have it there at launch or not too long after, so we'll see. It has TwitchTV and OnLive for sure, as well.

RolandDeschain wrote:Peaches, more devs will sign on with this over time. XMBC, which is a supremely popular home theater PC software package for Linux/Windows, is in. The fact that this device is completely open (you can go edit anything, hack anything, mod anything) will ensure it's loved by the Linux community.

Help make it a success by ordering one. The more they sell, the more devs will come. Netflix hasn't been confirmed as of yet as far as I know, but they said they hope to have it there at launch or not too long after, so we'll see. It has TwitchTV and OnLive for sure, as well.

TwitchTV is awesome. Tonnes of cool speedruns up on there, check some of them out. In particular, AndrewG's super mario bros speedrun and and of the Joe Stanski sonic runs.

A friend of mine from my undergrad days just moved to Seattle as her husband was hired to be something at Steam (which Id never heard of before) which he isnt allowed to talk about .. I wonder if this is it?

Will read up, thanks Roland.

It's the same processor in many tablets out there. It's good for an embedded device, but nothing to write home to mom about.

Feel free to contact me if you need legal assistance. I have a great lawyer that helped me with an ex who violated my privacy and kept harassing me on MySpace and Facebook. He's very good. And there is legal precedent. - linuxpro

A friend of mine from my undergrad days just moved to Seattle as her husband was hired to be something at Steam (which Id never heard of before) which he isnt allowed to talk about .. I wonder if this is it?

It will be as powerful as most top-end smart phones but the biggest difference is that no power will be drawn from a battery nor will any power/processing be spent on the video.

The draw of something like the Ouya is to drive development toward technology that is more far-reaching than our current system allows. It's just as PC's allow for more openness and creativity than on closed systems.

Steam is a online gaming ecosystem that is backed by Valve (they make Portal 1/2, Half-Life Series, DOTA2, etc.).

Currently, the official launch is June 4th and selling at many major retails while those that "kickstarted" or backed the project preliminary will get an early pre-release model. This will be their 2nd version after the dev models that came out earlier in the year. So far there are mixed reviews due to the fact that it's not the final build but the potential is still there.

I asked him if they had any plans to make anything for the Ouya and he kinda chuckled. Apparently they don't see it as much more than a pumped up smart phone at this point. They don't think it's going to have the horsepower to make anything comparable to the HD games they're making for PS3 and 360 right now, never mind what they're going to be able to make for the PS4 and 720 that are apparently going to be coming soon. From screenshots of what I've seen for Ouya so far, I kinda have to agree. Everything I've seen so far looks like some old rebuilt PS1 game (ie. Final Fantasy III). He says they might dabble in it as they've been making a big push for the "micro purchase" in their games (ie. spend $1 and get a new golf club for Tiger Woods) and Ouya seems like it'd be a really good vehicle for that. They might "try out" Ouya with things like Tetris or Monopoly (simple stuff they can re-platform relatively easily) and see how it goes.

My bro did however think that this whole Ouya thing could be a big catalyst for change in the video game industry though. The way they seem to be making things more accessable, open ended and user friendly will definitely have an impact on the way the "big boys" do things if it catches on with the masses. Sounds like it's on their radar, but not in any kind of substantial way.

He did however qualify everything by saying that EA is clearly all about the money and if they decide they can make a decent enough profit on it, they'll make games for just about anything...

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CANHawk wrote:My brother is sorta-kinda-semi-high up at Electronic Arts.

I asked him if they had any plans to make anything for the Ouya and he kinda chuckled. Apparently they don't see it as much more than a pumped up smart phone at this point. They don't think it's going to have the horsepower to make anything comparable to the HD games they're making for PS3 and 360 right now, never mind what they're going to be able to make for the PS4 and 720 that are apparently going to be coming soon. From screenshots of what I've seen for Ouya so far, I kinda have to agree. Everything I've seen so far looks like some old rebuilt PS1 game (ie. Final Fantasy III). He says they might dabble in it as they've been making a big push for the "micro purchase" in their games (ie. spend $1 and get a new golf club for Tiger Woods) and Ouya seems like it'd be a really good vehicle for that. They might "try out" Ouya with things like Tetris or Monopoly (simple stuff they can re-platform relatively easily) and see how it goes.

My bro did however think that this whole Ouya thing could be a big catalyst for change in the video game industry though. The way they seem to be making things more accessable, open ended and user friendly will definitely have an impact on the way the "big boys" do things if it catches on with the masses. Sounds like it's on their radar, but not in any kind of substantial way.

He did however qualify everything by saying that EA is clearly all about the money and if they decide they can make a decent enough profit on it, they'll make games for just about anything...

Good. I hate EA. they are everything that is wrong in the gaming industry. I hope they suffer a data east-like collapse.

Dude you take that back. Data East was the shit! RoboCop the video game was phenomenal! Burgertime changed my LIFE!

I dunno man... EA makes some really good stuff when they put their mind to it (like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, SWTOR, Burnout, Madden), but they far too often sell out pretty much everything in the name of profit. They've been famous for pushing games out before they're ready just to make their sales projections for the quarterly reports. One of the pitfalls of being a publicly traded company I guess. Thank god they can patch the console games now though. It was pretty freaking bad when the only option you had was to throw the game at the front window of the store that sold it to you or live with the shitty piece of shit they sold you for $70 (but I only pay $20 for EA games... suckas).

Not to hijack the thread, but you kinda have to have a little understanding on what kind of EA product you're buying. Look for the studio that actually made the game; anything by Bioware or Criterion is pretty much solid gold (I don't think they've shit the bed yet). EA Tiburon (Madden, NCAA, Tiger Woods) and EAC (FIFA, NHL) are pretty damn consistent all things considered. Anything by EA Montreal, DICE, Mythic or Visceral (Dead Space notwithstanding) is typically crap.

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That's definitely in their pipeline. There's a few thing that haven't come out yet like how the system will handle external storage but they partnered with media groups to make the device multifunctional.

Basically, they are still in their beta phase due to their promise to get devices out to their backers. The official launch is set for June so that give them two months yo finalize any system operations. Once the modding community at large gets a hold of this I think it will really be awesome.

Big companies and traditional tech sites are looking at this pretty narrowly. What places like xda have done to android devices is nothing short of amazing.

sammyc521 wrote:That's definitely in their pipeline. There's a few thing that haven't come out yet like how the system will handle external storage but they partnered with media groups to make the device multifunctional.

Basically, they are still in their beta phase due to their promise to get devices out to their backers. The official launch is set for June so that give them two months yo finalize any system operations. Once the modding community at large gets a hold of this I think it will really be awesome.

Big companies and traditional tech sites are looking at this pretty narrowly. What places like xda have done to android devices is nothing short of amazing.

Yeah, my impression is that they've given it little more than the bare minimum for on board storage as a means to keep the price of the unit down. It comes with what, 8GB? That's nothing these days. Seeing as how there's no disk drive and the only means of purchasing games will be through download, you'll fill an 8GB hard drive in no time. I imagine they plan on making it super easy to plug in an external USB hard drive because of just that. Not having a big old mechanical hard drive in there like the PSXBOXs do probably had a lot to do with keeping the overall size of the units to a minimum too which should save them a few bucks in shipping.

I gotta say, I do have some reservations that the Ouya will deliver but I'm SUPER interested to see what it actually looks like. The Ouya itself might not survive, but it will more than likely be a big game changer...

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For $99 for them to provide anymore more than what they already have is impressive; this device includes a controller. That's probably the biggest selling point of the Ouya.

Now for those that want to compare it to the big-consoles are looking at it poorly. This device will live and die because of the small-time developer market. Big-name companies can join the frey but I have yet to see them be big players even in the mobile market. The best selling mobile game of all-time is Angry Birds followed by many non-big name developers.

A company like Gameloft, Rovio, and Zynga will see greater success. The Ouya may not survive this first rendition, but it's got enough backing from not only the public but from stores like Gamestop and Amazon.com. Obviously they've got a solid product or their sales team is strong to sell an underwhelming product (which I don't believe).

I don't disagree at all. EA's claim that it's not on their radar shows that they unwillingness to invest in porting over their current mobile games to the Ouya is a testament to poor thinking. All they need is controller mapping. That is something they should strive to provide if they want to make their mobile game market a more fulfilling venture. People may not scoff at spending $0.99-$4.99 like they do when a game retails for $60... but for a company as large as EA it would be a minimal investment with great exposure.

I know that I've downloaded plenty of Android demos and spent the $0.99-$4.99 on their full-version even though my play the second time through may be very limited.

sammyc521 wrote:I know that I've downloaded plenty of Android demos and spent the $0.99-$4.99 on their full-version even though my play the second time through may be very limited.

I've paid $60 for the same experience. When I can finish a single player campaign in under 10 hours and there isn't an engaging multiplayer option you can bet I'll think twice before I buy a game from that studio again. However, my expectations are generally pretty low on a $.99 investment and I am almost always pleasantly surprised by the longevity of most of those games.